


Chapter Seventy-Four (Point Five)

by TheDirtyBirdie



Category: Jane the Virgin (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Petra learns to be vulnerable against all odds, Plotting the downfall of your enemies as foreplay, Post-Episode: S04E10 Chapter Seventy-Four
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-16 14:14:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13637937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDirtyBirdie/pseuds/TheDirtyBirdie
Summary: Jane comes to Petra's suite, just like in her dream, except not.





	1. Chapter 1

Petra comes to with a start, gasping for air and all too aware of the throbbing between her legs and the swirling sensation of heat pooling low in her belly. She's so distracted by the dazed, buzzing sensation flitting across her skin as she recovers from her dream, and all the revelations it brought with it, that it takes her a moment to register the knocking which must've woken her in the first place.

She stands, straightens her shoulders, schools her expression, and shakes off the arousal, along with all of the questions that came with it, to be shelved and dealt with at a later point in time. While it’s fair to say that she’s trying to get a little better at ‘living her truth’, so to speak, and being in touch with her emotions, she’s also a firm believer in compartmentalizing, when the time is right.

When she reaches the door, she’s feeling as ready as ever to deal with whatever mess is about to be thrown her way, until it turns out Jane (lawyer Jane, not Jane, Jane) is the one on the other side of it. Petra takes a deep breath and does her best not to allow her mind to flood with images from moments ago, and does her best to put on a warm, convincing smile. She has a feeling it comes out as more of a grimace, but Jane seems a little too distracted to notice, anyways. In fact, she seems downright distressed. A niggling little voice in the back of Petra’s head tells her that Jane looks downright guilty, even.

Petra really, really doesn’t like the familiar feeling washing over her.

That feeling like she’s about to be betrayed.

“I need to talk to you.” Jane insists, point blank. Her tone is firm, but there’s a pleading look in her eyes. Petra sighs, and she hopes it sounds put upon, rather than sad.  
“Alright,” She steps aside, waving the other woman into her suite. “Keep quiet, I don’t want the girls to hear whatever it is you’ve come to say.” She continues on, locking the door and leading the way into the living room. She’s somewhat surprised when Jane takes a seat next to her on the sofa, rather than on one of the armchairs to the side. It throws her off, but she tries not to let it show.

The moment they sit down, Jane starts talking.

“Luisa hired me to set you up.” It’s not that she didn’t see it coming at all, at this point, but Petra still can’t help the pang of bitter hurt that flares in her chest. “I swear, Petra. I only agreed because I thought you were guilty. She told me you and your ex-husband set her up, made her think she was crazy so that she’d commit herself and give up control of her shares. I’d never have agreed to this if I hadn’t believed her. I swear, I’m-” The desperate edge to her voice breaks, and she cuts herself off, holding something back.

“I’m not that type of person. I need you to believe me when I say that.” For a moment, Petra says nothing. She’s vacillating somewhere between hurt, rage, and an intensely compelling desire not only to forgive, just to preserve this one thing in her life that was starting to seem like it could be good, for once, but to be… better. As she’d promised herself she would be. The trouble was that the line between being better, and being gullible, was a fine one indeed. A needle she hadn’t always managed to thread quite as precisely as she wished.

“You say you’ve been working for Luisa. Are you still?”  
“No.” Jane shook her head, her tone left no room for question. “It’s complicated, but as soon as I realized that there was no way you’re guilty, I told her I was out.” Petra’s first impulse was to ask what it was that changed her mind, but she pushed forward with what she knew was, really, the more important question.  
“What do you mean by ‘it’s complicated’?” She demanded. Jane took a deep breath and reached into her purse, retrieving a flip phone, never a good sign, and pressing a few buttons before handing it over to Petra. There she found a series of cryptic and increasingly tense messages from an unknown number, the last one sent not even twenty minutes ago.

> Unknown @ 9:30PM  
>  Either Petra goes to jail or you do.

And while that’s plenty alarming, it’s not the first time that Petra’s faced this type of threat. She hasn’t ended up behind bars yet, and now that she has more than ever to fight for, her two beautiful, wonderful daughters, there’s no way she’s going down now. It’s also not the message that holds her attention. It’s the two immediately before it.

> Jane Ramos @ 6:07PM  
>  You said she was guilty. She clearly isn’t.

> Jane Ramos @ 6:08PM  
>  It’s over. I’m out.

Now, this isn’t enough to convince Petra she should throw caution to the wind and give into her desire to put her trust in JR (again), but it’s definitely something. Now feels like a good time to ask the question she’s been holding back.

“What changed your mind? About me being guilty.”

Jane bites her lip, as if mulling over her words, before speaking. “It wasn’t one thing, exactly. When I met you, you didn’t seem like someone with something to hide, and trust me, I know how to spot someone with a secret or two. But, you didn’t strike me as one of them, at least not in this particular case.” And the grin that spreads across Jane’s face when she says that does a frankly alarmingly good job of reigniting the butterflies in Petra’s gut, given the circumstances.

“Then, it was the little things. The way you care about your family, how seriously you take your job, not to mention how confident you are in your position here. It just didn’t seem like it would be worth the risk. Not to mention, you don’t strike me as the type to kill her sister, no matter how you felt about her.” Jane paused, and Petra could feel that she was staring slightly too intently, waiting with more anticipation than she cared to admit, but she couldn’t quite seem to stop herself.

“And it was the big things, too. What you did for my mother-” the wavering in her voice was clear, and it took all of Petra’s discipline not to reach out, take her hand, comfort her, anything. It wasn’t an impulse that had ever come particularly naturally to her, but she’d gotten better at it in the last few years, and it was nearly overwhelming, now. “What you did for my mother, Petra, there was no reason for you to do that. As your lawyer, we both know I didn’t need any extra reasons to try and win your case beyond doing my job, you just did it because you could, because it was kind. Because you’re kind.”

And damn, Petra could feel a slight burning in her eyes, she’d made it almost a lifetime without crying, and now here she was, twice in one day. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had called her kind and meant it. Meant it almost enough for her to believe it herself. “Plus,” Jane continued “There was today, in the stairwell. That was real. And that was the end of it.”

Petra took a deep breath, simply thankful it wasn’t stuttering. “Yes. Well,” She said quietly, caught between avoiding JR’s eyes to avoid any tears managing to spill, and not quite finding the will to look away from the other woman’s face. Trying to determine where to go from here, difficult to manage through the thick fog of fresh emotion and information clouding her mind.

“Thank you.” She managed, so sincere it almost hurt to say. “For believing me. Not many would.” The look Jane gave her was both relieved and questioning. “I may not be that person now, but I have been, in the past.” Jane nodded, understanding. She couldn’t, of course, not fully, but she was willing to accept both truths. That Petra had indeed been someone else, someone more sinister, in the past, and that she had grown beyond that.

She decided that, for the moment, she couldn’t deal with the emotional side of things, it was too much for the day already. So, instead, she opted to focus on the more pressing issue at hand.

“Alright.” She stood, voice firm. “Follow me.”

Petra led her to the small, personal office of her suite, closed the door, and rounded on a somewhat bewildered looking Jane. “We need to figure out what we’re going to do next, because I’m certainly not going to prison, and neither are you.” Jane’s face fell into a more familiar grin, with an almost devious edge to it, an expression all too familiar from the dream that seemed so far away, now. Petra suppressed the shiver that threatened to make its way down her spine at the thought. That was firmly in the category of thoughts and feelings sort out later on.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Featuring a little glimpse of Rafael and Petra being real, supportive friends and co-parents.
> 
> I was [listening to this](https://soundcloud.com/janelle-monae/janelle-mon-e-givin-em-what) on repeat the whole time I was working on the chapter ♥ It is very, very gay by simple virtue of being done by Janelle Monáe and Prince.

It's actually a rather simple plan, as these things go. Petra has to remind herself, at multiple points, that she doesn't actually want to hurt Luisa (it's a hard instinct to check when she's at risk of being taken away from her daughters), she just needs to talk to her. Talk sense into her. 

With Jane's help, getting in touch with Luisa won't be difficult at all.

Jane is going to insist on a meet-up in person. Apparently it's only happened once, so far, when she was hired, but she swears that if she stresses enough that she has physical evidence that Luisa needs to see in person she can get her to show up. If all goes according to plan, Jane's will actually be handing over the proof needed to make it clear that Magda and Anežka were to blame for the entire scheme. Originally Petra thought she might show up herself, but the risk of Luisa fleeing or hurting her on sight is just too high. Jane will go, alone, and both Petra and Rafael will be on standby, hopefully Luisa will choose to reach out when she sees for herself what's happened. 

Actually acquiring said proof is the hard part, made harder by the fact that they're working on a very limited time span. 

Jane says she has a guy, a little more akin to a bounty hunter than a P.I., who's going to look into Magda's activities throughout the last few months. When Petra asks who she needs to pay, Jane insists she's not paying anyone. Petra pushes that this is her family, she's protecting, and no one else needs to take that on but her, but Jane tells her it's  _her_ mistake that Petra is righting, and  _her_ mistake that has contributed to this situation, in the first place. 

Neither of them mention the fact that Petra already as good as sworn to protect Jane, in this situation, but it's there. Hanging in the air between them every time they catch each other's gaze when the other isn't meant to be looking, or brush and linger a little longer than is truly excusable. 

The week wears on, and Jane is around a lot. Petra knows she goes home to help her mother, but it seems every spare moment she has is spent at the hotel. Now, Petra is good at her job, great at it, actually, but she'd be lying if she said the other woman's presence wasn't at least a little distracting. 

She appreciates it, she does, as every moment JR is there she's pouring over something, researching something, calling someone, truly doing everything she can to find the proof they so desperately need. She can't say that she thinks it's all for her, after-all, Jane has her own freedom at sake here, as well, but she could do it anywhere. Petra's quite certain she does it here because she  _wants_ Petra to know that it is, at least in part, for her. 

She tries not to concentrate too hard on the way that makes something inside her flutter. 

In the end, it's her P.I. who finally turns something up.

There's security footage, clear as day, of Magda, Anežka, and Carl meeting up outside an old, run down salon on the other side of the city. Clear as day. It might not be enough to clear Petra and Rafael from Luisa's suspicions entirely, but it's enough to indict Magda and raise some questions, hopefully ones that will be enough to make her hold off on this scheme to frame Petra because they've run out of time. 

If this can buy them more, so they can find more evidence of Magda's plan, they might just have a chance of getting out of this. Home free.

It's not until she calls Rafael to inform him that Jane will be meeting with Luisa tonight that she realizes she... hasn't actually explained the plan to him yet. 

"No, not your Jane, my Jane." Petra huffs. Now is not the time to get derailed, certainly not by this.  
" _Your_ Jane?" She can practically hear Rafael's amused expression over the phone.  
"No-I mean, yes- shut up. Not  _my_ my Jane, just- JR."  
"I wasn't aware you had a Jane." Rafael teases, blatantly ignoring Petra's admittedly flustered correction.  
"I do  _not_ have a Jane, I-she's just my-" Lawyer? That doesn't feel right. Friend isn't quite sufficient, either. "Alright, fine. I might have a Jane, so what?" Rafael just laughs.  
"Alright nothing. Petra, it's not a bad thing. If she makes you happy... I can't say I saw it coming, but I'm happy for you." Petra lets out a long breath, slumping into her chair, a little.  
"We're not actually- well, seeing each other. Yet."  
"Oh. Are you just waiting for this to be over?"

"It's more than that." Petra sighs. "We only met because she was hired to frame me, Rafael. How do I know I can trust her?" She can hear the insecurity in her voice, and if it were anyone else she would feel humiliated. But with Rafael, it's alright. The girls are everything, to both of them, she knows that in the need to protect them they will always understand each other.  
"You can't. Not really, no one can. But for someone you're not even seeing, she's taking a lot of risks to make things right. Started the second she realized you were innocent. Which, you might remember, she's doing on faith in you being a good person, there's pro hard proof either way." A little of the wall Petra has been beginning to build up, only semi-deliberately, crumbles away at that.  
"You're right. I hate it when you're right."

Petra rights the conversation before things have the chance to get any heavier, and eventually, once the plan for the night is clear, it peters off and they say their goodbyes.

The stress of everything that's been happening, with the threat of being taken away from Elsa and Anna looming over her head, it's starting to weigh on so much she can feel it in her bones. She can't imagine how Rafael was able to do it willingly, even knowing, in his mind, that it was the right thing to do. 

She's so lost in her thoughts that she doesn't notice the wetness under her eyes until JR appears in the doorway.

"Alright, I'm gonna go now, rendezvous point is a couple-oh, sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt." Petra does her best to regain composure, straightening herself and wiping carefully under her eyes.

"You've already seen me cry, what does it matter, now." She says, trying to wave it off, but JR just comes to her with a sigh, sitting down on the couch and, with only the slightest hesitation, resting a hand on her back. She keeps it there, rubbing small, soothing circles as Petra crumples again at the touch.

"Hey." She says gently, leaning in closer. "It's going to be alright. We've got this, okay? You're not going anywhere."  
Petra looks up into her eyes, and she really, really means it. Believes it. She's no idiot, that counts, to Petra. She realizes that like it or not, she already trusts JR, truly. She reaches over to take the other woman's hand in her own, squeezing tight. "Neither are you, you know." Something in Jane's face shifts, and for a second, all the tension that's passed between them feels palpable in the little space separating them. Almost magnetic. 

She could kiss her. Petra knows this. She wouldn't say no, and it would feel so, so good. 

But not quite right. Not yet. She needs this whole ugly mess behind her. Wants it off her shoulders so she knows, without a doubt, that none of this is just borne out of desperation. Instead she wraps her arms around JR's shoulders and pulls the other woman in for a hug, tucking her face into the crook of her shoulder. The tension of the moment dissipates, and for a moment, Petra feels simply content. Content and tired. 

Eventually, JR leaves, and Petra is left to do what she hates most of all. Wait. 

She loathes the feeling of uselessness, but for once, she knows what to do with it. 

Petra goes to her girl's room, where she knows she'll find them pretending to sleep, books hidden away under their pillows, and gets them out of bed. She believes Jane when she says they have this under control, she does, but after the last week, all she wants is to be with her daughters for a while, appreciate them. 

Petra has popcorn and sparkling orange juice brought to their suite and they all cuddle up in her bed, put on the girl's favourite movie, and stay there until their soft laughs peter off into snores and Petra is left with the glow of the television, turned down low, for company. 

Jane should be meeting with Luisa any minute now.

She shuts off the tv, tucks the girls gently into her bed with little kisses to their foreheads and a hand gently stroking through their hair, and slips quietly out of the room with one last glance at what she's fighting for to wait by the phone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, Rafael is alright. I know that this all came together ridiculously easy, but I'm tired and I just want Petra to have something nice, for once. Next chapter is gonna be three times as long and 87% smut ♥♥

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to comment or leave a request in the comments or [on tumblr](https://dirtybirdie.tumblr.com/) ♥
> 
> _**P.S.** This hasn't actually been beta read, pretty much just pumped it out and posted it. So, if anyone notices an error or two, don't be afraid to point it out, I'd appreciate it ♥ _


End file.
